Redrawing the Appellation Map

The case about Chateau Pontet-Canet and their challenges being in the fifth tier of an unchanged classification system reminded me of a headline I saw earlier this month about proposed changes to the appellation system for Burgundy.

France’s Department of Agriculture manages a system called “Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée/Protégée (AOC/AOP).” [1] The AOC/AOP system is a set of designations that is meant to protect the geographic origin of wines as well as the growing conditions and production methods that make it distinctive (also applicable to other agriculture products like cheese, etc.). While there are 360+ AOCs in France, there are 11 growing regions, including Burgundy. [2]

Earlier this year, the organization responsible for maintaining the maps for the AOC/AOP proposed redrawing the border of the Burgundy appellation on relatively short notice. It was a follow up to a 2014 attempt to redraw the appellation map for Burgundy that was ultimately rejected. The most recent redrawn proposal would remove municipalities that produced wines like Chablis and Cremant de Bourgogne from being part of the appellation -- meaning that wineries in those areas would no longer be able to include the Burgundy appellation on their labelling. The proposal would also move to include some Beaujolais wines as part of Burgundy, something that was not well received given market perceptions of Beaujolais wines more broadly. [3]

In this case, I can understand why the wineries were extremely frustrated -- especially the wineries that were potentially going to be removed from the appellation. From the articles I read, it did not seem like the government did a lot of groundwork with the potentially impacted parties before unveiling the plan -- for example, they did not get buy in from the Burgundy Wine Board, which I would imagine is a fairly critical stakeholder in this case.

From the Chateau Pontet-Canet case, I can understand why the lack of movement on these types of systems are frustrating as a quality winemaker. However, redrawing the boundaries of what is included in Burgundy seemed more extreme than re-tiering a system from 1855 that had not been updated. What do folks think -- is redrawing a map of what is included/excluded from a geographic appellation the same as re-tiering a system that was developed in 1855 for a different purpose?

[1] https://winefolly.com/deep-dive/looking-for-good-wine-start-with-the-appellation/
[2] https://media.winefolly.com/french-wine-regions-map-simplified.jpg
[3] http://vins-bourgogne.fr/presse/succes-de-la-mobilisation-des-vignerons-bourguignons,2309,9200.html